Top 10 things to do with Sean

My brother, Sean, came to visit us from Utah the week after Thanksgiving. We had so much fun with him. Hyrum would wake-up every day and tell me that he needed Sean; in fact, he still tells me that. Hyrum was so excited to see Sean when we went and picked him up from the airport. Hyrum was also bummed when Sean had to leave and decided soon after that it was his Papa's turn to come and visit him.

We loved having Sean here. He was so nice to help me out with the kids and was very patient and understanding with all the many things we had going on. We hope that Sean will come and visits us in the Mid-South again.

Here are the top ten things we did with Sean

#10 We went and saw the Mississippi River. We didn't get out to walk around, it was really rainy that day. However it is amazing how big that river is and we didn't look at the biggest part.

#9 On the same day we visited the river, we visited the Memphis Temple. It is one of the mini temples and very beautiful. Also, since it is raining we didn't get out and walk around.

#8 Having Sean come to Church with us was one of mommy's favorites. A kid per adult...heaven!

#7 Hyrum loved going to the mall with Sean. At the local mall they have a carousel. All children 5 and under ride free as long as they are with an adult. The first time I rode with Hyrum and he rode on the Dragon. The second time, Hyrum rode with Sean and he rode on a Reindeer. Hyrum loved riding on the carousel and waving to everyone.

We also stopped by the Disney store at the mall and Hyrum thought that he had died and went to heaven. So many of his favorite characters from shows were in that shop (Cars, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and More).

#6 Having Sean here to hold two babies, another one of mommy's favorites. It took the babies a little while to warm up to Sean; especially Emmy. After he was here a couple days, they loved chilling with him.

Sean and the babies

(in their Christmas shirts that came from Sean's suitcase)

#5 Exploring Sean's luggage was a highlight for everyone. Grandma packed many surprises for everyone in Sean's luggage. His suitcase was very similar to Mary Poppins' bag, you never knew what would come out of it and many random things were in the bag. Everyone was so excited to find out what would come out next. Emmy even crawled in his suitcase so she could have a better look.
#4 Watching movies and eating popcorn together is one of Sean and Hyrum's favorite past times. The movie they usually watch together is Cars. Sean must of had the magic touch because within a few minutes, Hyrum was fast asleep.
#3 Hyrum loved having Sean here to take naps with him. Once again, Hyrum is still asking to have Sean to come and take a nap with him.

#2 Also while Sean was here, I had all the different colored dragons in the house defeated by my two knights. Not to mention that I, the princess, was rescued. Hyrum loved that game and Sean was kind enough to play it with him. If you notice in the picture below Hyrum has his big sword and Sean gets a wimpy diving stick. That is how it goes around our house if you play with Hyrum. He gets the nice coveted things in the house and the babies get the gimpy things.

The two knights!

(notice the swords!)

Defeating the blue dragon!

#1 Last, but not least, just having Sean here to read books, play cars and just give loves was the highlight of him being here.

Come visit us again soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was hoping to do this post earlier, but our computer was having problems reading our memory card. Anyways, here is the Thanksgiving post. Check out my other post for more about our trip to Texas.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We spent our Thanksgiving with Brandon's parents. As well as Brandon's brother, his daughter and Brian's friend and her kids.

The food was fantastic! My mother-in-law, Ethel, went all out this year. My favorite included the marvelous turkey, yummy yams, and your typical mash potatoes and gravy. Brandon was absolutely in heaven when his mom made his favorite homemade orange rolls.

The babies, especially Ben, were in heaven! They loved being able to sit on the laps of their grandparents and have them feed them the delicious food from the table. Emily went nuts over the pie. After she helped me eat my pie, she went over to Brandon to help him with his piece since she was so put out when my pie was all gone.

Hyrum loved being around all of the kids! It was hard for him to focus on eating his food with all the excitement going around.

Also, who would have guess that we would get snow in Dallas, Texas! It didn't stick, but still it
snowed.

It was a great thanksgiving! Brandon and I have much to be thankful for. We have been blessed in more ways then we could describe and we owe it all to a loving Heavenly Father.

This post is dedicated to the Princess!

As many of you may remember my previous post about finding Emmy almost completely out of her pajamas. Well, today, I found her all the way out of her pajamas and standing up in the crib, in her birthday suit, waving hi to me when I came in the room. Yes, that means her diaper was off. Needless to say that today, due to the nature of the diaper, a complete bedding wash was in order. No wonder only Ben was crying this morning, the princess was obviously busy and didn't want to be disturb. A new order has been in place, that not only does she need to have clothes over her diaper at all times, she needs a onesies on as well. I think an extra layer will prove to be crucial to avoid future messes.

However, despite this incident the little princess is stealing our hearts everyday. She loves ice cream. If she sees you eating some, expect to share with her. She loves to play with the phone and pretend to talk on it. If you say hello, she will put whatever she has in her hand up to her ear. She loves to clap and will do so on command. She loves her daddy and is so excited when he comes in the door. Emmy loves to read books. She loves to push her push toy around the house and can take a few steps with it. She might be able to take more, but she has her brothers there who think they need to play too. She loves to be held, but only for a little while.

Like I said before, she is our princess!

Three Monkeys in the Tub!

These pictures I took back in October. Around the time the babies could sit-up pretty well (September), I started bathing both babies in the tub at the same time. Of course, Hyrum being the water boy that he is, desires to get in the tub with them.
Therefore, I end up with three monkeys in the tub which makes bath time wild, fun and entertaining! I think they love it when all three get in the tub until there is too much splashing. All three of my sweet monkeys love bath time!

Trip To Texas!

For Brandon's long Thanksgiving break, we went to Texas. The drive from Memphis is only 7 1/2 hours, but with our family it becomes a 9 hr drive! Overall, the babies did pretty good for that long of a drive. We only heard a peep out of Hyrum when he needed a new movie in the DVD player.

We had tons of fun with family. Hyrum had fun going on a walk with grandpa in the red wagon. Hyrum loved being able to play with his cousin Alizabeth. Hyrum also loved all the fun toys Grandma T. picked up for him to play with. Hyrum especially enjoyed the kid car that he was able to drive. He was a little wild, so you have to watch out.

The babies were a little nervous when they first met everyone, but warmed up to them really quickly; especially Ben. Ben loved sitting on Grandpa T.'s lap and enjoying whatever his grandpa was eating. Emily was content to be held for a little bit, but was content for the most part to have mom hold her.

I think one of Brandon's favorite part of the visit was that he was able to spend time with some of his best friends from high school who he hasn't seen in five years. His friends had a little party for us on Wednesday and we all went out to lunch on Friday.

It was nice to meet all the people who Brandon talks about all the time and all of the crazy things they did. Brandon also took me on a drive around the area where he grew up and showed me his high school and were he did his swim team. We hadn't done this before since Brandon's parents moved out of the area where Brandon went to high school right before Brandon went on his mission.

It was a really great trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. I will do a separate post about Thanksgiving later once I get the computer to work again.

I think Hyrum's comment really sums up our time in Texas. As we left, he said, "Wow, that was fun."
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100th Post!

This is my 100th blog post for the year of 2007. I thought that it was fitting that this post be dedicated to the event that has had the most influence of our life this year. The event is Brandon's acceptance and starting of Optometry School in the state of Tennessee.

On October 5th, 2007, Brandon participated in the traditional white coat ceremony. During the ceremony Brandon took the optometrist oath and received his first offical white coat. Luckily for me, I was able to find babysitters for the kids and was able to enjoy the ceremony. I was a little bumbed, they had the ceremony in your typical southern church and the lighting was not very good for pictures.

Taking the oath

Receiving the white coat

Brandon and some of his friends

The handsome doctor and I

(I wished we would have gotten a better picture of Brandon and myself)

Brandon and his good friend Tony

The very smart and handsome future optometrist!

Doctor Check-ups and 3 year old Photos!

We recently had all three of our monkeys' doctors appointments and they are doing great!

This was my first time going to the doctor's office by myself with the twins and it was an adventure! Emmy was scared of the nurse and greatly offended by the doctor. I don't think she appreciated him examining her. Ben on the other hand was happy to be there and he did really well until he got his shots. We were only there for a little over 2 hours with 2 one year olds...It was exhausting for everyone!

Their Stats:

Emmy- 19 lbs 1 oz, 27 1/2 inches long

Ben-22 lbs 4 oz, 29 inches long

They have gotten so big. The doctor is really please with how they are doing in everything. Their new trick is that they pull to stand anytime they get. They will probably be walking before I know it; where did my babies go?!

Hyrum's doctor's appointment was fantastic! Once again, the doctor is really pleased with how things are going for him. The doctor's comment was that Hyrum is a really big 3 year old, and he is.

His Stats:

Hyrum- 38 lb 6oz, 3 feet and 5 inches tall

Hyrum at first was really bugged when he had to take off his shirt (he has always had a thing about having his clothes on) and was a little timid when the doctor was examining his eyes. However, Hyrum soon thought the doctor was pretty cool and wanted the doctor to come back after he left. When the nurse came in to give the shot, he was ready to take off his shirt to be examined. Little did he realize that it was shot time. We left his shirt on and he got one shot in his arm. I was so impressed, all he said was ow! No tears, nothing! I think it was because he was pretty excited to get a cool band aid on his owie.

Below are Hyrum's 3rd birthday pictures. Pictures with Hyrum was another adventure. We waited forever to get his picture taken. Then when it was his turn, he did not want to have his picture taken at all. He wouldn't smile, but he would cry. So, we left and got all the way back to the car when he decided he was ready to have his picture taken when he realized that I would not let him have the treats I promised/ bribed him if he would get his picture taken.

We wemt back to the picture place and waited another hour or so to get Hyrum's picture taken. Luckily for us, we had a great photographer who was wiling to take the time with Hyrum to get somewhat of a decent shot and had a lot of patience with him. I was very impressed with her.

More Halloween Photos!

I promise this is my last Halloween post. For Halloween we went trick-or-treating with a few families in our ward. We all met at one of our friends' house and headed out with 9 kids and three strollers.

The Halloween night was amazing. I have never gone out on Halloween and have not needed a jacket of some sort. It was so much fun! Hyrum loved being around his friends. Hyrum especially loved the idea of getting candy from every door. Since Hyrum was a cowboy, he wore cowboy boots. However, after a short period of time, he was complaining that his toes were hurting. As a result, Brandon or I ended up carryinh him while the other one pushed the stroller. It was so funny, as soon as the kids went to another house to go trick-or-treating, Hyrum would want to get down and run to the door yelling trick-or-treat over and over again. He definetly didn't want to miss out on getting any candy. The babies were content to be pushed around once again and look at all the many different costumes.

After awhile of trick or treating we went back to our friends' house and enjoyed some adult goodies. A nice pumpkin spice treat which I still need to get the recipe, sugar cookies, a variety of breads and many other wonderful things.

While the parents were enjoying their food the kids explored the wonderful treasures they got from trick-or-treating (after mom or dad did a look through the treats to make sure nothing was in there that shouldn't be). However, the kids had to watch out because Ben and Emmy were on the lose to grab anything and everything they left on the floor.

All in all it was a very full night and the kids were exhausted, but really enjoyed themselves!

Every day for at least two weeks after Halloween Hyrum asked if he could go trick-or-treating again. He told me that Ben would be a dragon, Emmy a Princess and he would be a Cowboy. It was so fun to see how excited he got and how much he loved Halloween. I think he somewhat understood the concept of the holiday this year.

Below are pictures of the twins in their Halloween costumes when we got their one year pictures taken.

What Twilight Character are you?

As many of you may recall a post I did awhile back about my love for the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I recommend those books to anyone who likes a book with well thought out characters, some romance and suspense.

Anyways, through a link on my friend's (Rebecca's) blog I found a link to a quiz to find out what character you are most like in the book. My results were...

Which Twilight novel character are you?

You're Esme Cullen - Your maternal instinct to take care of people and be kind draw people towards you. You're compassionate and loving, yet firm when you need to be. You appreciate hard work and value the beautiful results of your dedication to any project.
Take this quiz!

Look who's three!

My handsome Hyrum celebrated his third birthday recently! I can't believe he is already three!

As most of you know Hyrum loves Mickey Mouse (he even has a special blanket that has Mickey on it). So, it was no surprise that Hyrum picked out the Mickey invitations for his party. He was so excited when Brandon and I were getting the house ready for the party. My dad called to wish him a Happy Birthday and Hyrum talked his ear off about all the fun things that were happening to the house. He knew something great was going to happen and he was right.

To start off, Hyrum loves having anyone over at the house so to have so many friends made his day. He loved having everyone coming to his house. !

For his party we did a bean bag toss. We used our castle, that we made for the trunk or treat, and cut out a couple of windows for the kids to throw the bean bags through. We called the castle "Mickey's Castle." The kids had so much fun with it, especially Hyrum. Many of Hyrum's friends came more then once to through the bean bags. After the kids through the bean bag through the whole they were able to pick out a disney sticker.

Next, we had to the kids go fishing behind our shower curtain. Hyrum's friends loved getting the prizes!

The last activity for the party that we had was a Nemo Pinata. ( I tried to find a Mickey pinata, but no such luck). It was so fun to watch the kids hit the pinata. Of course, being three year olds they didn't have the strength to break it so Brandon broke it open. The kids were so cute with the candy! The kids instantly ran to go and get the candy when the pinata broke, but most of them were content just to get one piece and go back to mom. It took some nudging to have the kids to get more candy. Also, it was quite amusing to watch the kids go after certain peices. Hyrum went after the suckers and his friend Hailey went after all the bubble gum.

After the pinata, we sang Happy Birthday to Hyrum and enjoyed having some Mickey cake and Ice Cream. I put some figurines that I had on the cake from when I went on a trip to Disney land a long time ago.

Then Hyrum really enjoyed himself opening his presents. The word of the day was definetly WOW! Hyrum was saying that as he was opening up the many fun presents from his friends!

Overall, it was a really great party and it seemed like everyone had a lot of fun!

After the party, Hyrum was able to enjoy one of his favorite meals, chicken nuggets, and open up other presents he got from family and friends from far away. Once again he loved opening them and was so excited about every present and repeating the word WOW over and over again.

Later that night, we had his other favorite meal, pizza, and watch the movie Meet the Robinsons

It was such an exciting day! I don't think Hyrum could have asked for a better birthday! As he was snuggling with me before he went to bed that night he was singing Happy Birthday to himself. I think that describes how he felt about his wonderful birthday!
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What is a birthday without some cake?!

I know my posts are jumping all over the place, and I apologize. Anyways, I realized that I didn't post any of the babies' cute pictures from their birthday of diving into their cake. It was so interesting to have two babies participate in the traditional act and have two totally different ways of going at the process.

We sang to Emmy first since she was baby A and therefore the oldest by two minutes. She tried to grab the candle while it was lit. When she started to investigate the cake she took her pointer finger and was using it to explore the wondrous curious object before her. After exploring the cake by touching and squishing it for a little while and and after taking a little lick of the frosting off her little slender finger, she decided that it was time to quite being lady like and go all out (in regards to the cake). After awhile, she noticed Ben playing with the plate and decided that she too would dump her remaining cake on the floor and on her high chair tray.

Ben too was very fascinated with the candle. But unlike his sister, he was more fascinated with the plate the cake was on then the actual cake. Ben explored the plate first by dumping the cake on his high chair tray and on the floor. Followed by banging the plate covered in cake against his tray. It was only after he finished exploring the plate that he decided it was the cake's turn to have his attention. He explored it tentatively at first and like his sister after awhile went full force to destroy the cake.

Although it ended up being a complete mess, I think Ben and Emmy completely enjoyed themselves. We didn't open up the babies' birthday presents until the next day since they were so tired after exploring their cake.We also took a video of them exploring their cake and hopefully I will be able to add that at a future date.

Below are pictures of the babies at their little birthday party we had, and of them opening their presents the day after.

Trunk-or-Treat!

Our ward put on a fabulous Trunk-or-Treat party! Hyrum was in heaven! He was around all of his friends from the ward. The party had a cake walk, duck pond, pumpkin painting, face painting and of course the trunk-or treat.

Hyrum mostly stayed by the duck pond where the water was and the cake walk. The babies loved looking around at all the many exciting things that were going on around them.

For the Trunk-or-Treat we decorated the back of our van as a castle and had our little princess(Emmy) and our dragon (Ben) sit in the back. We got so many compliments about our "decorations" as well as people coming to take pictures of them. By the end of the trunk-or-treat the babies were ready to get out of the back of the van.

Hyrum loved trunk-0r-treating and the idea of getting candy from every car we went to and was so excited to watch his pumpkin get filled up with candy.

The party was so enjoyable for both Brandon and I as well as the kids. We had a great time!

The sad part of the night is that we were given a plate of cupcakes to take home on my cute Halloween plate that I brought apples on for the party. Well, Brandon put the cupcakes on top of the car while we were getting our monkeys loaded up in their car seats. You guessed it, we forgot about the cupcakes and drove off with them on the top of our car! Needless to say the plate broke and the cupcakes were gone.

Other then that, it was a great night!
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Pumpkin Carving!

Hyrum loved doing one of Brandon's favorite things to do which is pumpkin carving. With a fun new tool from Grandma B., Hyrum and Brandon set out on the grand adventure of carving a pumpkin for FHE earlier this week.Hyrum was fascinated by what was inside the pumpkin and the texture of everything. As most of you know, as soon as Hyrum's hands are the slightly dirty, sticky etc. he wants to wash them. However, we were able to talk him into waiting until after he carved the pumpkin.

He took his job of carving the pumpkin very seriously and had to do anything that his daddy was doing. Here he is practicing drawing a pumpkin face with daddy.

The end result was fabulous. Hyrum loves his pumpkin that he has carved and has asked many times if he can just sit and hold his pumpkin. I think that we will probably carve a pumpkin every year because what is Halloween without the joy of carving a pumpkin?